Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch opens complaints department

An Al-Qaeda branch in northern Syria has opened a complaints department in one of the cities it controls. The militant organization apparently aims to show the local residents that it can act as a civilian government.

The branch operating in the provincial capital city of Raqqa
posted a notice last week, suggesting the public turn to them
with possible grievances.

"Anyone who might have a complaint against any element of the
Islamic state, whether the Emir or an ordinary soldier, can come
and submit their complaint in any headquarters building of the
Islamic state," the notice said as cited by The Telegraph
newspaper. "The complaint should be in writing, provide
details and give evidence.”

The militants, whose long-term goal is to turn Iraq, Syria and
Lebanon into a single Islamist state, pledge to try any
violations at a Sharia court.

Earlier the Al-Nusra Front, the prominent Islamist force fighting
to topple the Syrian government, admitted that it is in fact a branch of the Iraqi-based Al-Qaeda
in a statement.

Over the years Al-Qaeda has showed a surprising amount of
bureaucratic work for an organization supposed to be a loose
network of independently-operating terrorist cells. In the latest
example a letter was found in Mali’s Timbuktu, which criticized
Al-Qaeda-linked guerrilla leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar for failing to report his
expenses, answer his phone in a timely manner, or carry out
attacks as ordered.

The attempts to impose the strict version of Islam are met with
disdain in Syria, which had been for decades a moderately secular
state. In Raqqa the Islamists attempted and failed to impose a
smoking ban, according to local activists. But the militant group
denies this ever happened.